SOUTHERN TIER (WENY) -- Today marks 45 years since a historic hurricane turned tropical storm caused the flood of 1972. 

"I remember going down and looking at the river and thinking 'there's no way that's going to fill up,'" says Jim Pfiffer, who was a junior in high school at the time. "[But] boy, it did."

On June 23rd, 1972, much of Elmira and the surrounding area was well underwater. Tropical Storm Agnes caused the Chemung River to do more than just overflow its barriers.

"The things we saw," says Pfiffer. "From houses coming down the river and taking out bridges, to cattle coming down the river, to people helping each other."

In just 48 hours, roadways turned to lakes. Homes were destroyed, business districts swept away and many resident with little choice but to leave.

According to the Chemung County Historical Society, about 15,000 Elmira residents were forced to evacuate their homes.  About 5,000 homes throughout Chemung County alone were damaged during the flood.

That summer, Pfiffer was a junior in high school. In the days following, he and his friends worked around the clock lending a hand in the storm's aftermath. But those times, while devastating, also left Pfiffer with some unforgettable memories.  

"We were walking down the road, and the road's got six or eight inches of water in it," says Pfiffer. "One of my buddy's is in the middle and he's got a shovel over his shoulders like this. Well we're walking in the street and the manhole covers had come off, so the manhole covers were off the manhole--he walked right in and fell through. If that shovel wasn't there, he would have got sucked right in and we probably would have never saw him again."

The damage and the debris has since been removed -- but many of the memories of 1972 still remain.

"I don't think we've completely gotten over it," says Pfiffer. "I think we've learned from it. We're still changing, and there's always that possibility again. If mother nature decides, wants to drop that much precipitation here, there will be another flood."